Tiling
Tile Adhesive Calculator
Enter the area, pick the tile size and trowel notch, and get the kilograms of adhesive and the number of bags to order. Consumption follows the notch and the bed, allows for back-buttering on large-format tiles, and rounds up to whole bags.
Your tiling
Set the tile, the trowel notch and the area. Consumption follows the notch and the bed — not the tile size on its own.
m²
What this assumes
- Consumption is driven by the trowel notch, not the tile size on its own. The table this uses — about 3, 4, 5 and 6+ kg/m² for 6, 8, 10 and 12 mm square-notch trowels — is standard tiling practice under IS 15477 and EN 12004, and is labelled indicative because it is an engineering convention, not a figure published for one product.
- Large-format tiles (800×800, 1200×600) need a void-free solid bed, which in practice means back-buttering. That is applied here as a 1.3–1.5× multiplier on the notch figure, because a combed bed alone leaves hollows under a big tile.
- The substrate control moves the figure within its band: a porous, absorbent screed drinks more adhesive than a smooth, sealed one, and a wall bed is usually thinner than a floor bed.
- Where the adhesive you select publishes its own consumption, that sentence is shown verbatim with the estimate and tagged as a manufacturer figure. Most tile-fixing products do not publish one, so the standard table is used and marked indicative.
- Wastage covers box mixing, ridging losses, tile back-buttering and the skin that goes off on the board. 8–10% suits a floor with regular tiles; raise it for large-format, walls, cut-heavy rooms or hot weather that shortens open time.
- Bag counts round up to whole bags, default 20 kg, and this estimates adhesive only — not grout, spacers, primer, levelling compound or waterproofing.
Where these figures come from. The base consumption figures are the standard trowel-notch table used across the tiling trade (IS 15477, EN 12004 / EN 12002 for C1/C2/S1 classes); they are a convention, not a manufacturer value, and are labelled indicative on screen. Where a Space Arc tile-fixing product publishes a consumption or coverage figure, it is parsed from that product’s technical data and shown verbatim with the result, with a manufacturer-figure tag. Confirm the notch, the bed and the class against the adhesive datasheet and a site trial before ordering — the substrate on site is what decides the real consumption.
Questions
How much tile adhesive do I need per square metre?
It depends on the trowel notch, not the tile. As a working rule a 6 mm square notch lays about 3 kg/m2, an 8 mm about 4, a 10 mm about 5 and a 12 mm about 6 or more. Large-format tiles need back-buttering and land 30-50% higher because the whole back has to be filled.
Why does the calculator ask for the trowel notch instead of just the tile size?
Because the notch sets the bed depth, and the bed depth sets the consumption. The tile size only tells you which notch and technique to use. Two people tiling the same 600×600 floor with a 6 mm and a 10 mm notch will use very different amounts of adhesive.
Can I use a C1 adhesive for large-format or 600×600 tiles?
Generally no. C1 is a basic cementitious adhesive. For large-format tiles, walls, or wet and external areas, EN 12004 practice is to specify at least C2 (improved adhesion), and an S1 (deformable) grade over screeds or substrates that can move. The calculator flags a C1 choice in those cases.
What is back-buttering and why does it raise consumption?
Back-buttering is troweling a thin coat onto the back of the tile as well as combing the bed, so the two knit into a solid, void-free layer. It is essential for large-format tiles and wet areas, and it is why big tiles use noticeably more adhesive than the plain notch figure suggests.
Should I order to the low or the high figure?
Order to the high figure. Running out of adhesive mid-wall means a cold joint or a part-set bed you have to rake out; a spare bag does not. The calculator already rounds up to whole bags and lets you keep a sensible wastage allowance on top.
Do these bag counts include grout and spacers?
No. This estimates tile adhesive only. Grout is a separate calculation from the joint width and depth, and primer, levelling compound and waterproofing are separate again. Use the grout consumption calculator for the joints.
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